


As The Seasons Change

by Mskristinamay



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Artist Theo Raeken, Kissing, M/M, Post-War, Teacher Liam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 08:50:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20561579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mskristinamay/pseuds/Mskristinamay
Summary: Liam falls in love with an anonymous artist and makes it his mission to find the person.





	As The Seasons Change

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first piece back from a looooong writing break. It is obviously not up to par with my best writing but I will get there :) enjoy

“I need it.”

“Dude, we know.” Mason said with an eye roll before returning them to the screen of his laptop.

He grumbled but typed hastily away at his own computer, frantically searching for the art piece or the location of the artist he had been for the past many months.

“Liam can you give us anything to go on here?” Corey asked. Liam opened his mouth to speak only to get cut off. “Other than the fact that he only paints a small metallic wolf as his signature in each corner.”

Liam frowned and shook his head.

Six years ago he had been walking through a small art gallery in upstate California with his mom when he found the first piece. It was a moon scene, and he didn’t know why but he couldn’t take his eyes off it. It was like it called to him. Called to a part deep down inside of him. The full moon was shining down on a dirt path leading towards a dark set of trees. It made him shiver, it felt like he knew those trees, knew that path. Which turned out to be impossible since the gallery owner told him the painting was inspired by a different country.

Not even blinking at the high price, Liam had purchased it. He couldn’t leave it behind, it had already attached itself to a piece of his soul and he had a brand new house to fill anyways.

He had just bought a small home on the edge of a college town in northern California where he was now a history professor. Hence the trip to the gallery with his mom. It was the last thing they were going to do together before she went back home. She insisted that no home was complete without a proper mood set and going on about feng shui something or other that he had stopped listening to. Jenna had researched galleries their whole drive up to his new home and had taken note of a few that she thought were good enough. That gallery had been the last on their list and Jenna had been on her last straw with Liam by the time they got there but that was quickly forgotten as soon as he saw the painting.

He looked up from the laptop resting on his legs and glanced over at where the picture had hung since the day he brought it home. A year after the purchase of the first art piece, the gallery owner had called him up and told him a new piece from the artist had arrived and since Liam had shown such interest in the first one he figured Liam would want to know about the arrival of the new one. Needless to say he was not surprised when Liam had shown up at the gallery an hour and a half later.

So after many years of collecting this artist’s work Liam had become obsessed with trying to find him, especially since no new work had been released in over a year. He was itching for it. It almost felt as each new piece he collected the more whole he felt himself.

The last piece he had managed to get his hands on had been a set of paintings that now claimed the wall space above his bed. Two pieces that were on separate canvases but when pushed together made one large picture. Two wolves under the moon. On the left side a black wolf, sitting on the path under the moonlight staring off in to the distance. On the right side was a sand colored wolf with what looked like a few lighter patches laying down on the path. When the two paintings were pushed together the two wolves were touching. It made Liam ache down to his core.

And then there had been nothing. No new pieces and Liam hadn’t realized how much he had come to rely on his mystery artist to fill something in him until the art stopped coming. He HAD to find them. So here he was, urgently requesting the help of his two best friends on a wild witch hunt to find an artist that didn’t want to be found. He had asked the gallery owner multiple times who and where this artist was but was never given anything concrete.

“I think I found something!”

Liam was up and out of his seat so quickly that his laptop tumbled to the floor and his water spilled off the side table. He’d clean it up later, he could care less about those things right now. He leaned over Mason, eyes rifling over his screen.

“The wolf signature in the corner, I did a search for it this place came up.” Mason said excitedly, accepting a kiss from Corey in congratulations.

“Lone wolf farms.” Liam read. “Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire, England.” He looked up wide eyed.

Corey tapped away on his laptop filling the silence before smiling and shutting the device. “Plane leaves in two hours bud, better go pack.”

“What?” He and Mason said at the same time.

Corey shrugged. “Happy birthday?” Now it was Mason’s turn to kiss Corey in thanks.

“Clocks’ a tickin’.”

Liam raced around his house throwing random clothes and chargers in to a small duffle. Patting his jeans pocket for his phone, keys, and wallet. Nodding in affirmation once he located all three.

Mason handed him a printed out boarding pass. “Don’t worry, we’ll watch the house while you’re gone.”

“Thanks guys, I owe you!”

“Good luck!” Corey said and with a hug from each one of them he was out the door and on his way to the airport.

Liam was tired. He hadn’t been able to sleep on the plane due to the excitement of finally finding the person responsible for making him feel since… he shook his head, since a long time ago. Liam wasn’t going to go back there with his thoughts. It was all in his past.

He had hailed a taxi which had taken him to the correct town but the driver had no idea where the farm was and suggested that he get a local car service that knew the area to take him the rest of the way.

Liam stopped in a small pub and asked for directions. The kind lady behind the bar offered to call him a cab but upon learning it was just a few miles up the road he opted to walk. It was a full moon tonight and his wolf was already restless from being pent up for so long on the plane all in all he could use some time outside.

By the time he reached the sign for the farm, the sun was setting. He turned down the driveway and let the view of the fall leaves changing color ensnare his senses. Breathing in fresh air and admiring the scenery noticing he found a few places that seemed familiar and then immediately recognizing them as parts of the paintings that he had decorated his home with.

Reaching the end of the driveway, he stopped. There were three buildings standing in front of him. Not sure where to go he started with the closest one. He knocked and waited but there was no answer so he tried the door handle finding it was open and he stepped inside. His breath caught and the duffle bag had slipped from his shoulder.

He spun slowly. In every direction, on every wall or easel, there were pieces of art. Some just being started. Some finished. And some, some that had holes in them from no doubt being punched or shredded. His heart broke.

His magical, wonderful, elusive artist had ruined beautiful images and Liam couldn’t fathom why. They were all so good, so full of life and passion. He leaned down to pick up one of the damaged ones and gripped the edges firmly. It was him, or rather the sand colored wolf, looking back at him with the most confused eyes. Claw marks ripped across the painting from corner to corner.

Liam looked around, most of the paintings were of the wolves. The black and tan one. Some pictures of them together and some of just one or the other. He felt his heart in his throat and his wolf started pacing inside him.

Forget that his painter was a wolf and could be dangerous as he was most likely a rogue out here alone, but he was hurting and it was evident in the work and destruction surrounding Liam. He set the ripped painting down next to the door with a silent promise to come back for it ruined or not.

He moved to the second building and found nothing but some old cars and cobwebs so he carefully made his way to the last building. A barn-like structure sitting further to the back left of the driveway. There were a few soft lights glowing from the windows and using his supernatural hearing he could tell that someone was in the shower.

Forgoing everything his mother and Scott had taught him about entering someone’s home without their consent, he quietly crept in to the house. What he saw inside was nothing short of amazing. The outside barn exterior deceived what had been done on the inside. A modern farmhouse style swept from room to room with rich earth tones boasting of nothing extravagant or out of place. Just simple and homey. His skin prickled at how quickly he felt at home in this place but yet his wolf was surprisingly calm.

“Usually it’s considered polite to knock when you arrive at someone’s home before just entering.” A dark voice spoke from behind him.

Liam jumped and let out a little scream before catching himself and spinning around to face the man. He was about to apologize profusely but the words died in his throat as soon as his eyes met a pair of familiar ones.

“What are you doing here Liam?” Theo sighed, he looked tired. No, haunted, he looked haunted.

“I… you…” Liam stuttered and then shook his head trying to shake off his shock.

Theo chuckled and then moved about the kitchen in search for something. “Still as eloquent as ever I see.”

Liam frowned. “You’re my artist?” He finally managed.

Theo froze mid reach up in to a cabinet. “I’m not your anything. We made that clear the night after the war. I’m not anyone’s anything.”

Liam’s skin started to crawl. He never did like how everything ended, how everyone went their separate ways, but especially how everyone was quick to dismiss Theo as if he hadn’t helped. But it wasn’t his call, he wasn’t the alpha at the time.

“Theo,” Liam tried.

“No, Liam. You found me, good job. But I need you to go. I can’t have you here.” Theo said brokenly and then on a whisper so quiet that Liam wouldn’t have heard it had he been human, “Anyone but you.”

“You have no idea how hard I’ve been trying to find you. Just tell me one thing… those paintings,” Liam said softly, “you’re the black wolf. Who’s the sandy one?”

Theo leaned against the counter, hands gripping the countertop to the point where Liam could hear the stone start to cry from the pressure. Liam walked up carefully behind Theo so that he was just behind him, could feel the heat his body was giving off. He sensed it then, that feeling that he got every time he looked at his paintings, that feeling of being whole. Little pulses racing up and down his synapses, every fiber of his being vibrating as if this was the answer to all of his emptiness. As if Theo was the answer.

“Who is it Theo?” The hushed words blew across the back of Theo’s neck making the boy, no man he was a man now, shiver in front of him.

And then it was like the first lightning strike of a storm that had been building on the horizon all day.

“YOU! It’s you!” Theo yelled, spinning to face him. “It’s always been you. Out of all the people I had the option to grow attached to out of your righteous little pack with a constant death wish it was you. You, with your stupid ideas and even dumber actions. God, do you know how hard it was to watch you put yourself in danger every five fucking seconds. To never know if I would see you again. To have this panic fill me every time I thought of losing you. I don’t know how it happened or why it happened and I hate that it did because I can’t control it! I can’t turn it the fuck off! And then when everyone turned their back on me, nothing not even losing Tara, cut me like when you followed them.”

There were tears streaming down his face now and Liam felt like throwing up because he was cause for them.

“So here I am.” Theo said, words thick now getting stuck in his throat. “You found me. Hope you like what you see.” And then he was walking away, out the door and towards the woods. The dark woods like in the very first painting Liam had seen from him.

He quickly followed, running to catch up, feeling the life drain out of him the further Theo managed to get away from him. Now he knew why he started to distance himself from everyone apart from Mason and Corey after the war. He felt it too, just in a different way. Felt like a part of him was missing but he just assumed it was grief from everything he had been through.

“Theo!” Liam was sprinting now as Theo was almost to the trees a good football field away. “Theo wait!”

The man froze, shoulders heaving and head bowed. Liam caught up quickly now that Theo wasn’t making it his mission to put distance between them. He threw his arms around him from behind, resting his forehead on the back of Theo’s neck and trying to let their breathing sync before saying anything. Theo’s hands clenched and unclenched into fists at his sides trapped beneath Liam’s arms.

“You need to let me go, Liam. I can’t… I can’t do this again.” Theo sounded defeated.

“Thee.” Liam pushed the nickname out, hoping it would help soften Theo’s resolve. Theo’s hands came up to his arms and his head fell back so that it was resting against Liam’s. “I’m not leaving, at least not without you this time.” Liam spoke softly.

He felt Theo’s walls go back up immediately. “Liam,”

“No.” Liam pulled him around to face him, catching his face between both of his hands making Theo look at him. “I fucked up back then. We were kids, Theo, and I had no idea what I was feeling. When you left, something in me turned off. I thought it was just grief over everything that happened. But it just got emptier and emptier and then one day, I found a panting in a gallery. It jumpstarted me. Every piece I collected from you put another piece back together in me until you stopped producing and then suddenly it was like I needed to find you like I needed my next breath. I found you Theo, I found you again and this time I’m not letting go. This time I know what I feel. I need you Theo. I need you like you need me.”

Theo choked on a lost sob and then mirrored Liam’s position grabbing his face between his palms. “God damn it, Liam. Do you know how dangerous it was entering a rogue’s house on a full moon? You’re so stupid. So fucking stupid. I-”

Liam didn’t let him finish. Blame it on the full moon, the fact that he hadn’t had kissed anyone in six years since he got the first painting because no one else felt right, or he just couldn’t wait any longer to taste Theo, but he caught Theo’s open mouth in a kiss. It was messy and it was a battle for dominance as their relationship had always been but it was perfect. Perfectly them.

So as the full moon shone down on them, just like the painting above Liam’s bed, they started the next season of their lives.


End file.
